TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Lai Ching-te thanked the air force on Friday for their "outstanding" work during Chinese war games around the island earlier this week, telling them to keep up the good work.

Xinhua, the official news service, noted that instead of referring to China as the “the mainland”, which would suggest that China and Taiwan are one country, he referred to it as “China”, as if they were separate.

A record number of Chinese warplanes and naval vessels surrounded Taiwan during Beijing's one-day, large-scale military exercise on Monday, the self-governing island's Ministry of Defense said.